Tag: Compliance

5 Things Every Workplace Risk Assessment Should Include

Posted on by Charlie Patrick

Risk assessments play a vital role in keeping your workplace safe and are an essential pillar of an effective health and safety strategy, whichever industry you are in. Identifying and managing your workplace risks regularly enables you to protect your employees by mitigating the hazards and supplying the necessary training, whilst also ensuring you remain compliant. However, many risk assessments fall short due to missing or skimming past some of the most crucial elements.

So, to help you strengthen your processes, here are five essential components every workplace risk assessment should include.

1. Clear Identification of Hazards

The first step of any risk assessment is to thoroughly identify all the potential hazards across the workplace. This includes all physical, ergonomic, or long-term hazards, many which may not be immediately obvious. This creates a clear outlay of the risks, so that you can work towards a plan to mitigate them effectively.

During your assessments, you should also consider the impact of any changes occurring throughout your workday, including any lighting, weather, personnel or processes that may differ. Reviewing your incident reports regularly can also help reveal common health and safety risks and failings.

2. Who is at risk?

When working towards achieving safer workplace practices, understanding who might be affected by each hazard is crucial in order to pinpoint how to best protect the individuals. This includes not only employees but also contractors, visitors, and even members of the public – depending on your workplace layout and operations.

This allows you to adjust the processes according to their level of experience and knowledge via a range of techniques, whether that be improving your staff training, moving staff around, or even changing the processes entirely. This also opens up the opportunity to spot developing patterns, thereby potentially preventing any individuals from being overexposed to hazards.

3. Implementing Control Measures

With the vulnerabilities now identified, you must evaluate the level of risk each hazard presents and identify all existing control measures. Commonly this can be done through a rating system such as a risk matrix/register, to easily prioritise the most dangerous areas. Determine if the control measures are adequate or if further action is required to bolster your health and safety practices to reduce the risks.

In this step, it is also crucial to consider how hazards may overlap and interact with each other, as often long-term risks and fatigue can increase the chances of a health and safety failing.

When implementing mitigation techniques, it is important to remember the hierarchy of controls, providing a guide to the most effective strategies:

  • Elimination – Removing the hazard completely
  • Substitution – Replacing the process or hazard with a safer alternative
  • Engineering Controls – Changing the systems to minimise risk exposure
  • Administrative Controls – Changing practices to reduce the potential risk
  • PPE – Directly protecting the individual from the risk

4. Employee Involvement and Consultation

No one knows your workplace quite like your staff, as interacting with different parts of their working environment day in day out gives them a unique perspective and understanding of potential health and safety issues and concerns. Co-operating with your employees during a risk assessment is crucial to revealing the overall picture, helping you be aware of hazards that may have otherwise gone unnoticed whilst also enhancing your health and safety culture – making staff feel heard and valued.

During this step, it is also vital that you ensure all staff are up to date with the latest emergency plans and processes to verify their safety and others in the event of an emergency.

5. Introducing a Review Schedule and Documenting

Finally, workplace risk assessments are not one-off exercises. They should be living documents, updated and reviewed whenever there are changes in procedures, equipment or personnel, with significant changes demanding a full re-assessment. With this in mind, scheduled review intervals are essential to upkeep a safe workplace. Depending on your working environment and the risks involved these timescales can fluctuate, being unique to your organisation, generally sitting between every quarter to biannual reviews

On top of a regular review cycle, make sure you are thoroughly documenting your finding. This is not only good practice, but it’s a legal requirement across the UK. A clear and structured record shows that the risk assessment was completed properly and outlines who is responsible for actions and their deadlines.

Documenting and scheduling reviews is often made easier through the use of standardised templates, helping your reviews to meet the same criteria. This can be further aided by risk assessment software to maintain consistency and keep within deadlines.

Conclusion

Workplace risk assessments are a fundamental part of your health and safety management, but their requirements can be blurry, so completing them correctly is vital to ensure the safety of your work premises. By ensuring your assessment includes these five key elements, you will create a strong foundation for a safer and more compliant workplace. Whilst the inclusion of staff into your practices will improve your workplace’s safety culture, ultimately creating a much safer working environment for everyone.

Who is Responsible for Fire Safety Awareness in the Workplace?

Posted on by Melusi Chirikure

Among all health and safety responsibilities in the workplace, fire safety is perhaps the most important – and certainly the most prominent. With more than 13,000 fires attended by Fire and Rescue Services last year in workplaces and other non-residential buildings, accidental and deliberate fires remain a huge concern.

Most people think that the responsibilities for fire safety rest solely on the employer, but fire safety in the workplace is a shared effort among employers, employees, fire wardens/marshals, and even governmental organisations.

Here’s a brief look into who plays key roles in ensuring fire safety awareness in the workplace:

Employers

The employer, also most likely the ‘responsible person’, bears the primary responsibility for fire safety in the workplace. As the overall decision-maker and provider of business resources, they are pivotal in fire safety awareness.

According to the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, employers must:

  • Conduct a comprehensive fire risk assessment to identify potential hazards
  • Implement fire prevention measures and emergency procedures
  • Provide fire safety training to employees
  • Ensure fire extinguishers, alarms, and exits are maintained and accessible

Employees

While employers create the framework, employees are ultimately responsible for adhering to fire safety rules and procedures. Their roles include:

  • Staying informed about fire safety training and procedures
  • Reporting potential fire hazards or faulty equipment
  • Acting responsibly during emergencies and evacuation drills

When employees actively participate, this builds and strengthens the overall fire safety culture of the workplace.

Fire Wardens

In Article 18 of the Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005, employers are required to appoint one or more trained people to help in carrying out preventive and protective fire safety measures. In many organisations, the duties of fire wardens/marshals involve:

  • Assisting the employer with routine fire risk assessments
  • Spotting, fixing, and/or reporting any fire hazards
  • Regularly checking fire alarms, extinguishers, and emergency exits
  • During an emergency, acting quickly to ensure everyone is alerted to a fire
  • Acting as points of contact during emergencies

Appointing and fully training fire wardens ensures that fire safety standards are consistently upheld.

Government Authorities

Local fire authorities and government bodies provide the regulatory framework for workplace fire safety. They enforce laws, offer guidance, and conduct inspections to ensure organisations meet their obligations.

The main pieces of fire safety legislation are:

  • Fire and Rescue Services Act 2004
  • Regulatory Reform (Fire Safety) Order 2005

Additional fire safety guidance is also crucial and can sometimes differ depending on industry, because some workplaces are more prone to fire accidents or arson than others.

To enforce the law, fire safety inspectors have the power to enter premises to carry out an inspection to ensure that a business is not breaking any laws.

Altogether, these authorities form the backbone of fire safety policies that employers and employees must follow.

To conclude, fire safety awareness in the workplace cannot be the responsibility of a single entity. It requires the collective effort of employers, employees, fire wardens, and governmental authorities to create a safe and compliant environment.

By understanding and embracing their roles, everyone in the workplace contributes to minimising the risk of fires and ensuring swift action in the event of one, whilst also protecting lives and property.

How to Create a Positive Health & Safety Culture

Posted on by Melusi Chirikure

Health and safety management extends much further than just being a box-ticking exercise. How you treat your health and safety can have vast implications on your workplace culture, whether you intend it to or not. Taking the time to foster a positive safety culture has the potential to bring a host of benefits to your business such as reducing injuries and costs, whilst creating a positive environment at work; which will boost your organisation’s productivity, morale and reputation.

However, altering your business’s safety culture takes time and can be challenging, requiring strong teamwork to instill your new behaviours, attitudes and values across your team. So, in order to help, we have picked out the 4 key areas that typically impact your workplace culture and how you can influence a positive change.

Policies

Starting with your health and safety policies, these play a vital role in the upkeep of your health and safety, ensuring that everyone knows and follows the set rules and guidance. But when was the last time you reviewed your policies and procedures?

Your policies should already be reviewed regularly, but this is especially important when trying to build a positive safety culture. Updating your policies not only shows your team that health and safety remains a top priority, but you should also ensure that your updated policies are centered around the best practices possible, placing safety above everything.

Management

How you manage your business and staff members has a drastic impact on your safety culture, with your words and actions weighing in heavily on your staff’s behaviours and attitudes towards safety. With this in mind, you should reinforce the idea that “safety comes first” – encouraging staff not to skip or brush over any checks or processes, even if they are in a rush.

You should also be mindful of how you communicate this, promoting this culture change through your actions as you lead by example. This means regularly assessing your workplace hazards and addressing risks proactively, whilst also encouraging employees to contribute to safer workplace practices.

Training

Training is arguably the biggest factor in your health and safety, because without the correct knowledge and training, even the best policies will fall short. This highlights the importance of a well-structured training plan, required to keep your staff well-equipped with the knowledge and understanding to be able to complete their day-to-day tasks safely. 

Your training plan should:

  • Follow a schedule – with frequent training to keep your employees’ knowledge and skills up to date.
  • Be role-specific – consider each employee’s role and ensure that they receive the relevant training required to complete their job safely, accounting for any PPE, machines, or unique risks they may face.
  • Be delivered to a high-quality – engaging high-quality courses are critical for your staff, ensuring that they retain the necessary information and lessons throughout their training.

Communication

The final pillar in improving your organisation’s safety culture is communication. You must be open to your staff and encourage them to step forward with any health and safety concerns which they may have. This is vital to create a strong level of trust and confidence throughout your team, enabling you to act quickly upon their concerns and cement your attitude towards health and safety within your team.

You should regularly provide your staff opportunities to communicate, whether that is through meetings or proactively asking them. This will be a welcoming addition to improving your organisation’s communication. Alongside this, including your team in health and safety decisions will further make them feel valued and open to communicate more.

Over time, implementing all of these steps combine to build a strong positive health and safety culture where it is understood and shared by your staff that safety comes first. This will influence your team’s attitude and behaviours towards health and safety to ultimately build a safer workplace, also boosting your team’s morale and reducing injuries & costs, whilst building a strong health and safety reputation as a bonus.

Health and Safety Considerations for Lone Working

Posted on by Charlie Patrick

Lone working is when employees work in isolation without direct supervision, and is increasingly common in various industries. But, whilst it offers more flexibility and autonomy for workers, it also presents a unique set of health and safety challenges.

Here is a comprehensive guide to understanding and addressing these considerations:

Workman Climbing a ladder whilst working alone outside.

Risk Assessment

Conducting a thorough risk assessment is a crucial first step in ensuring the safety of lone workers. Identifying all potential hazards such as equipment malfunction, health emergencies, or even the risk of violence. Doing so, Enables you to assess the severity of these risks and prioritise them to develop strategies to effectively eliminate them, creating a safer work environment.

Training and Awareness

To prepare individuals for lone working, you must first ensure that they have thorough training on the correct safety procedures, emergency responses, and the proper use of any equipment they will be using to properly carry out their job.

After following a comprehensive training plan, lone workers should be able to recognise potential hazards and know how to respond effectively. Afterwards, regular refresher training can help to keep their safety knowledge up-to-date, reminding them of the potential risks they may face.

Smartlog Laptop on the desk

Access to Communication

When someone is working on their own, communication is extremely important. It is crucial to establish robust communication systems, including regular check-ins by phone (or other instant communication devices), GPS tracking, or even emergency alert systems. Ensuring that lone workers can quickly and easily call for help in the event of an emergency is crucial to mitigating the risks.

Emergency Procedures

In more detail, you should clearly define emergency procedures which are tailored to lone working scenarios. This includes knowing who to contact, how to access emergency services, and the location of first aid kits. Having a clearly established and well-practiced emergency plan can make all the difference in a critical situation.

A pile of evacuation plans and fire alarms.

A Safe Working Environment

Ensure the working environment is safe and secure for lone workers. This includes keeping the workplace brightly lit, maintaining secure access points, and confirming all vehicles and work equipment are in good working condition. Regular inspections and maintenance can prevent breakdowns or accidents, and create a safer workplace.

Health and Psychological Support

You should keep on top of the health and well-being of lone workers, especially those in physically or mentally demanding roles. Often, lone working can lead to feelings of isolation or stress, and providing access to psychological support, such as counselling services or peer support groups, can help address and prevent these issues.

Encouraging regular social interaction, even if virtual, can also reduce feelings of isolation. For physical wellbeing, regular health check-ups can identify potential issues before they develop into anything more serious.

Different health metric symbols, signifying the importance of lone working support.

You should always ensure that you are fully compliant with health and safety regulations. This includes understanding your legal obligations as an employer, keeping up with all changes in legislation, and ensuring that all safety measures meet or exceed regulatory standards.

Remember, non-compliance can both jeopardise worker safety and lead to serious legal repercussions.

Encouraging Feedback

You should encourage regular feedback from lone workers to identify any areas of concern. Not only will this help them feel valued, but it will allow you to implement any improvements based on their experiences, helping to create a safer work environment. Also, remember to regularly review and update safety protocols to ensure that they remain effective.

By addressing all these health and safety considerations, you can ultimately create a safer and more supportive environment for lone workers in your organisation. Prioritising their wellbeing not only enhances productivity, but also demonstrates a clear commitment to their overall safety and security.

Winter Safety: Keeping Your Workplace Safe

Posted on by Charlie Patrick

With Winter fast approaching, how is the unpredictable weather impacting your workplace safety? From an increase in slips and trips from icy walkways to a lack of focus caused by inadequate clothing in the cold, keeping your employees safe this winter can be challenging.

It is crucial to plan ahead and foresee the potential risks that can impact your working safety, therefore we will now dive into some of the key things to look out for to ensure your workplace’s safety this winter.

Close up of a half gritted walkway, with snow on the righthand side and a person walking on the left.

Visibility

With darker and longer nights becoming the norm, it is vital that you ensure good visibility around your workplace. This will help you to avoid any slips and trips from poor lighting, or injuries from not knowing someone else is around.

So to avoid these situations, keep your site well-lit (especially around walkways), so people can easily identify any hazards in their paths, and also introduce high-visibility clothing if needed, to ensure that everyone can be seen – this is particularly important when working with machinery.

But also make sure you don’t overlook low-traffic areas, as often these can be the most dangerous. And if you need to, shadow colleagues to ensure that you are keeping your workforce safe throughout the day.

Heavy rain in the night sky lit up by a floodlight.

Changing Weather

In winter the weather is often unpredictable, making it challenging to upkeep a safe workplace, quickly jumping between icy winds, sudden downpours and freezing temperatures. Therefore, ensure that you evaluate the working environment carefully before carrying out any tasks. Consider whether the conditions and your personnel’s experience are adequate to safely complete the tasks at hand, or if there are better times to take on those riskier tasks eg. such as working at heights or during cold nights.

To combat the rainy weather, it is also critical to introduce anti-slip flooring, particularly around doorways as wet floors are often a recipe for slips, regardless of the wider conditions.

Ice and Dropping Temperatures

Arguably the most dangerous risk that Winter brings to your safety is ice and sub-zero temperatures, which quickly develop into new hazards and risks across your workplace. If these are not correctly dealt with, they can harm your working safety. However, one of the most effective ways of dealing with the dropping temperatures is through pre-emptive action.

During the colder months, staying on top of the upcoming weather forecast is crucial to safely planning out what your workplace needs in order to keep safe this Winter. So when low temperatures are forecast, make sure to grit your walkways the day before and ensure that all of your walkways are as clean and dry as possible. This gives you the best chance to avoid any icy or slippery floors, helping you fight back against any slips and trips – which is the leading cause of workplace injury.

Another crucial step to keeping your employees safe is ensuring that they are well-dressed to deal with the temperatures, especially when working for long periods outside. This can be done by encouraging them to keep warm and take regular breaks inside when it is especially cold.

Finally, when dealing with ice and snow you should encourage people to actively think about their winter safety. Whether it’s avoiding shortcuts off the gritted pathways, planning ahead to prevent rushing around, or even considering the best times for each task, to keep them as safe as possible.

An example of poor winter safety precautions where a man has slipped on an icy pathway.

Communication

But the final, most powerful tool you have when it comes to health and safety is communication. Regularly asking your employees, or even shadowing them for a while will potentially give you a new perspective on the safety of your workplace. Ensuring that they feel safe and at a comfortable temperature throughout the day is also crucial to workplace morale and safety; helping them stay focused and always remain health and safety conscious.

To conclude, keeping your staff safe throughout the winter should be critical to all businesses. Although it does come with its unique set of challenges, with the correct pre-planning and monitoring, these actions will significantly improve your workplace safety, aiding your Risk Assessments and checks to ensure you keep your employees safe this Winter.

Smartlog® Turns 20: Celebrating Two Decades of Innovation!

Posted on by Melusi Chirikure
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Twenty years ago, the digital landscape was very different. Dial-up internet was king, mobile phones were mainly used for calls, and cloud computing was only a concept. Today, software is an integral part of our world, being a part of pretty much every aspect of our lives – including health and safety.

This year, we are celebrating the 20th anniversary of Smartlog® by reflecting on its journey, growth, and future.

The Birth of Smartlog

Safesmart was incorporated in 2002 as a fire safety engineering company, and in 2004 we launched the cloud-based software Smartlog in order to give businesses more control in their fire safety management. Its ease-of-use was a key selling point, with an affordable pricing model also becoming a key attraction amidst an expensive market.

Milestones and Growth

Over the past two decades, the software has evolved, incorporating other areas of premises and compliance management into a digital platform. With each development building on the last, we have continually incorporated user feedback to adapt Smartlog to the ever-changing technological landscape – proudly passing the 300,000 active user mark earlier this year!

Impact on the Industry

The health and safety industry has seen a significant fall in both fatal and non-fatal workplace injuries over the last few decades, and this positive trend can be attributed to stricter legislation pushing businesses to put more efforts into protecting their workers.

We are very proud to be a part of this life-saving industry, having spent the last two decades facilitiating businesses with tools and knowledge which places workers’ safety and well-being first.

The Future of Smartlog

As we look ahead, we have some exciting developments in the pipeline which we cannot wait to share. Business risk compliance is a vast landscape of which health and safety is only one aspect; and we seek to ultimately provide our customers with a wider array of tools to make risk management as efficient and simplified as possible – whilst remaining affordable.

Celebrating 20 years of Smartlog is not just about looking back at what has been achieved, but it is also about recognising the potential for its future. As we mark this milestone, we remain committed to improving Smartlog further and providing crucial resources for businesses, ensuring that the next 20 years are even more innovative!

20% discount off the Training Course Creator

To mark this special occasion, we will be offering a 20% discount off our brand new Training Course Creator for the whole of November! To take advantage of this temporary offer, email: info@safesmart.co.uk or contact your Account Manager directly.

And of course, Smartlog wouldn’t have made it this far without the fantastic and loyal support we have received. So from all of us here at Safesmart, thank you for being a part of our journey!

The Importance of PPE in Your Workplace

Posted on by Charlie Patrick

PPE plays a vital role in keeping people safe at work by protecting the individual from risks that can’t be eliminated through standard risk mitigation. However, this makes it crucial to understand when and where it is needed to ensure your organisation’s health and safety practices are up to standard. So, let’s dive into it.

A safety helmet demonstrating an example of PPE.

What is PPE?

First, let’s cover the basics: Personal Protective Equipment –  often referred to as PPE, is all equipment intended to be used by a person at work to protect them from the risks present in their working environment.

This includes everything protecting you from hazards, such as high-vis clothing for conditions with poor visibility, to harnesses protecting you when working at height; no matter the severity of the risks it’s protecting you from.

When must PPE be used?

PPE must be used to ensure that any remaining risks/hazards, identified in your risk assessments, are adequately controlled, and should only be used when the risks cannot be eliminated by other means. This is due to the other means of risk mitigation being safer and more effective.

If you can avoid or eliminate the risks directly, this creates a much safer environment than applying protective measures; making PPE most suitable as a ‘last resort’ option. This is also reinforced by the HSE placing it last in its hierarchy of controls:

“Elimination – physically remove the hazard

Substitution – replace the hazard

Engineering controls – isolate people from the hazard

Administrative controls – change the way people work

PPE – protect the worker with personal protective equipment”

This makes the use of PPE necessary in high-risk environments such as construction sites, where for example, falling objects and moving machinery can’t be eliminated as a risk, making a hard hat, high-vis clothing and steel-capped shoes the minimum requirement.

A variety of PPE displayed out on a table, showing protective boots, gloves, ear protection, safety glasses, a hard hat and a high-vis jacket.

What does the legislation say?

The use of PPE is covered in many different laws and regulations, however the main two safety acts are the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974 (HSWA), and the Personal Protective Equipment at Work Regulations 1992 (PPER).

The HSWA prioritises creating a safe environment for your staff with risk mitigation and training, highlighting your duty to provide the necessary equipment and the training/knowledge to achieve this. Whilst the PPER goes into more detail with the requirements:

“Every employer shall ensure that suitable personal protective equipment is provided to his employees who may be exposed to a risk to their health or safety while at work except where and to the extent that such risk has been adequately controlled by other means which are equally or more effective.” – PPER 4.1

This regulation specifies the employers’ duty to provide suitable PPE to protect the employees when any risks are unavoidable and pose a present health and safety hazard.

However, it is crucial for the equipment to be in good working condition, and critical that the staff is trained to safely assess and use the provided equipment. This is because misuse of PPE results in thousands of injuries across the UK every year.

Workers having a safety debrief, covering the importance of PPE usage.

The Importance of PPE

PPE is the crucial last step in your organisation’s health and safety, protecting from the remaining hazards in your workplace to ensure that your staff remain safe. With the right training and maintenance, PPE provides effective protection to help prevent incidents and encourage a safer working environment.

How To Build An Online Training Course

Posted on by Charlie Patrick

Building an online training course can be a fantastic way to deliver training to your staff, allowing you to personalise and customise the learning experience, to ensure that all users take in all necessary information. However, that being said it is crucial to prepare properly before creating any eLearning course, to ensure that your courses deliver the required lessons. As often jumping straight into the creation phase, will result in missing content and ultimately a lower-quality course.

A user learning how to build an online training course

1. Course Objectives

Establishing what you want to teach is the first and the most crucial aspect of building an eLearning course. This ensures that the course covers all the crucial lessons that you need to teach, whilst allowing you to plan out how to best achieve this.

Start by setting the objectives of the course, these don’t have to be listed at the start of the course, but it can be helpful to establish to the learners what the key takeaways are. So what are the key lessons you are covering?

  • Filling in gaps of knowledge?
  • Teaching a user how to use something?
  • Where are health and safety measures required?
  • Site specific considerations/information?

2. Research

Research is the next important step in creating your own eLearning course. As before you start to piece together your course, you need to make sure that what you are teaching is correct. This will ensure that you fully understand the course content and iron out any mistakes/gaps in your knowledge to make sure that your training is as high quality as possible.

This step may not be necessary depending on the course content, so use your discretion. However, even if you are experienced in the subject at hand, finding credible sources to back up your statements only adds to the validity of your course, whilst ensuring that your learners can trust what they’re being taught.

A magnifying glass on a keyboard symbolising research

3. Audience and Format

When building your own online training course it provides an unmatched opportunity to tailor the content and format to your audience. This will also help condense the course, helping you to avoid being that dreaded training course that is too drawn out for its own good. So factoring in your audience and altering the content and format to suit, is key to avoiding this and build a high-quality condensed training course.

This will also allow you to change the format to best suit their training needs. For example, if your online training course is primarily for an experienced workforce, then you can tailor the content to be more ‘recap-focused’, to keep their training as concise and engaging as possible. However this therefore wouldn’t be as suitable for new starters, potentially lacking the detail required to fill in any gaps, highlighting why considering your course audience is crucial to ensuring that it delivers on the objectives.

A user learning from a elearning course

4. Course Outline

Once you have your foundations of the content, it is key to plan out an outline for your course. This will help you determine the best way to deliver the lessons to get your point across.

Start out by placing the key slides into your Training Course Creator tool and reorder them until they sit logically – covering all the key points in the order in which they should be covered. This will ensure that your course doesn’t bounce between topics to often and keeps the learning organised into digestible sections.

5. Content

Once you have your key slides in order, its now time to fill out the bulk of the course. This is where you compile all of the previous steps and complete the course with all of the relevant content.

Be sure to keep this in-line with your audience and formatted to suit, to create the best learning experience. Attaching any media, information sources and site-specific knowledge where necessary. This will also help keep the course engaging, which is critical to creating the best learning environment.

6. Quiz Questions and Types (Knowledge Checks)

With the bulk of the online training course now built, you can now test your learner’s knowledge. This is crucial to ensure that they have learnt the course content and meet the level of knowledge required to pass the course.

There are many ways in which questions can be integrated into the course, so make sure to consider the options to find the most appropriate fit. This means considering:

  • How many questions are needed?
  • How are the questions going to be spaced out?
    • Is one big block appropriate?
    • Do you space them out evenly?
    • Are short ‘Knowledge Checks’ the best fit?
  • What question types are you using?
    • Multiple choice
    • Drag and Drop
    • Sortable lists
  • What are the key topics to test for?
Puzzle question piece

7. Quality Checks

Finally, you need to check the quality of the course, ensuring that it works as intended, with no errors throughout the course, whether that is a weird glitch in the test questions or certificates not being awarded properly. This is also where you can refer back to the course objectives you set in the earlier steps, ensuring that the training delivers on its goals and has no content missing or being skimmed over.

During this step it is also important to check for any grammatical or spelling errors as well as formatting errors – are the pictures high quality? Are linked videos running smoothly? Is there any clipping or weird text placement?

Conclusion

Overall, there are many steps that go into the creation, research and formatting of an engaging high-quality training course. But these steps are crucial to ensuring the course lives up to the many benefits of custom courses and make it worth the added effort. When done correctly creating an eLearning course provides a unique learning opportunity and will enhance your training standard.

The Benefits of eLearning

Posted on by Charlie Patrick

Training is a crucial part of any business’s health and safety, with it being critical to ensuring that everyone knows the dos and don’ts within their workplace – everything from Asbestos Awareness to Fire Safety courses. However, managing training can often be a time-consuming and stressful task, and businesses often don’t take the time to consider other options. So here are the 5 benefits of eLearning to help you streamline your training and widen your perspective.

eLearning graphic of a laptop wearing a graduate hat.

Flexible Learning

One of the advantages of eLearning is its flexibility in both location and timing. Gone are the days of trying to schedule training with everyone’s calendars to make sure they can all attend one session at a set location.

eLearning allows you to bypass this and get your staff to learn at a time which suits them. Whether that’s on their phone/tablet as they are on the go or in the office on their computer, online training is completely flexible, all you need is a device and internet access.

Seamless Management

Managing training can be challenging and time intensive, lining up schedules, organising the training and tracking who has done what and when. But eLearning can streamline this process, with fast insights into your organisation’s training.

With the ability to quickly view who has completed their courses and what’s overdue and upcoming, our eLearning module will also ensure that no training is missed. With weekly email reminders for overdue training and auto-assign features, you can ensure that your training doesn’t go past its expiry date.

Smartlog's eLearning laptop, featuring different courses.

Personalised Learning

Another great benefit of eLearning comes from the individual aspects of it, allowing for personalised and unique learning. From choosing what to assign to everybody individually to tailoring their courses specifically to their department/site using a Training Course Creator tool.

Being digital, eLearning also provides a unique learning opportunity, allowing you to use videos and graphics easily to learn and even interactive content, which can provide immediate feedback to the user, helping them learn faster.

Reduced Costs

In-Person training is expensive with many factors affecting the price, from the trainers’ day rate, the travel costs involved, time lost and even the building costs for the room.

However, due to the nature of online training, you can cut these costs down by going digital, having no travel or hire costs and having training for unlimited users all for one price. Making eLearning a lot more affordable for businesses especially when the change in admin work is accounted for.

Reducing the cost of training image.

Bite-sized Learning

Splitting up training time is crucial to remain focussed and ensure the best learning environment. This is especially important when you are covering serious topics as is normally found within workplace training.

This benefits eLearning greatly as you can easily split up your training into bite-sized chunks, either one course at a time or pausing halfway through to come back to it later.

Overall considering the swap to eLearning can be beneficial for most businesses, helping you to streamline your training process whilst reducing costs, removing the hassle, and improving your staff’s learning experience.

7 Tips to work safely with height

Posted on by Charlie Patrick

Working at height can be extremely dangerous when not safely monitored and according to the HSE there are over 40,000 injuries in the UK every year. So today we will cover 7 crucial tips to ensure you follow safe practices when working at height, covering everything from equipment to common mistakes.

1. Assess the risks

When working at height it is crucial to assess the task(s) at hand and ensure that it is safe to proceed before putting yourself at any risk. This may not have to be a formal assessment if your workplace has a valid assessment in place. The key things to check in your assessment are:

– The height of the task – how much risk does that place on the job?

– The duration and frequency of the job – if it is a long task consider breaking it up into manageable chunks. And if it is a frequent job consider a more thorough assessment.

– The condition of the equipment and surfaces – ensure you have the necessary equipment in good condition and the surfaces you will be working on are safe and dry to avoid slips.

Man moving a ladder, and inspecting if it is safe to use.

2. Is it the appropriate time?

To reduce the risk of working with height consider if there is a better time to complete the tasks and if possible, can the job be avoided with a workaround from the ground? If the task is necessary, then take into account the factors that increase the risk.

This could be the training of the person carrying out the job, is there someone more experienced? Or the weather conditions and time of day, is there a quieter time of day or lower-risk conditions to work in?

3. Have you got the correct training?

Training and knowledge are crucial elements in keeping safe when working at height, so ensure that you have the appropriate training before putting yourself at risk. Training can be given in many forms, from direct 1 on 1 training to online training, depending on your needs.

Make sure you are trained well and have covered the relevant topics for the tasks you may encounter, some key topics include:

– The use of ladders

– Selecting and using the correct equipment/PPE

– Using MEWP’s (Mobile Elevator Working Platforms)

– Responsibilities when working at height

– The laws and regulations

Man about to climb the ladder ensuring it is placed correctly, and safe to climb at height.

4. Using the correct equipment

Ensuring the correct preventative measures are in place is crucial to minimizing the risks. This involves ensuring the correct CPE (Collective Protective Equipment) is in place and the appropriate PPE (Personal Protective Equipment) is used when necessary.

Some common examples of CPE include guard rails, scaffolding, and scissor lifts. Common examples of PPE include safety harnesses, a helmet and safety restraints.

Not only is having the correct equipment and knowing how to use it safely crucial, but it is also important that it is all in good condition. Making regular equipment checks vital to safe working procedures.

Man using PPE whilst working at height to keep safe.

5. Safety on Ladders

Ladders are often thought of as the go-to equipment when working at height due to their simple appearance. However, the risks they can carry are often underestimated, as they have been reported to be responsible for up to 40% of the injuries caused by falls from height.

So, despite their ‘simple to use’ appearance make sure you know how to use them correctly, here are some key mistakes to avoid:

– Don’t rest them on weak surfaces

– Don’t place them near anything that could push the ladder, such as windows and doors.

– Place them on flat and level ground, ensuring that the ground is dry.

– Ensure that the ladder is roughly placed at a 75-degree angle, this increases its stability.

6. Do’s and don’ts when working with height

Within any field, it is important to know the ins and outs of what you should and shouldn’t do, so here are some quickfire points to make sure you keep safe when working at height:

Do:

– Keep 3 points of contact on the ladder and don’t overreach on them.

– Ensure you aren’t at the very top, as this will make the ladder unstable.

– Check your equipment before use

Don’t:

– Overload the ladder or equipment you are using

– Overreach or lean over any railings/ladders

– Use ladders/equipment without training

Men climbing scaffolding whilst working at height.

7. Review your processes

Even if you don’t frequently work from height, a simple review of your processes can be beneficial to decrease the likelihood of injury through falls. This can be formal or on the fly, but for more frequent use it is important to review your processes regularly.

As part of your review, you need to consider if the processes you currently follow are still appropriate and compliant with the law. For example, if you have recently changed part of your environment or the factors are weather-dependent, make sure you have the correct PPE/CPE available if necessary and in good condition. Or if you don’t currently use anything more than a ladder, review if another machine may be more suitable and safer, such as a scissor lift. It’s also important to take training into account within these reviews.

References

HSE (2023) ‘Falls From Height’. Available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/food/falls.htm (Accessed: 9/2/24)

HSE (2023) ‘Health and Safety Summary Statistics 2022/2023’. Available at: https://www.hse.gov.uk/statistics/overview.htm (Accessed: 9/2/24)

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